Friday, July 09, 2010

The Dancer and the Dance

I think that in some parallel universe I’m a dancer. Or maybe it was that I was once one in a past life. Of course, all such speculation is no doubt simply a way of saying that I’m drawn to the art of dance but that in this life and in this universe, the opportunities never presented themselves for me to explore or pursue this particular form of artistic expression. Truth be told, I doubt I possess the huge amount of dedication and commitment necessary to develop the physical strength, flexibility, and stamina of a dancer. I have a hard enough time maintaining any type of regular exercise routine – plus I can’t even touch my toes!

I’m not sure where my interest in and attraction to dance comes from. And I should say that when I refer to “dance,” I’m not talking about ballroom dancing or folk dancing – as admirable as these expressions no doubt are. No, I’m definitely amoderndance kinda guy – with an openness to classical influences, of course.

I should also state up front that I’m in no way adverse to the sight of a man in peak physical condition – which, as I’ve noted, is what one needs to achieve and maintain in order to be a dancer. Lots of different sports and physical pursuits require such athleticism, but dance also demands gracefulness, and it's this combination of athleticism and grace that I find appealing. I also find it inspiring. I may not be able to touch my toes (yet) but watching the graceful and athletic moves of a dancer, mindful of the dedication and work that goes into expressing such beauty and strength, always motivates me to, at the very least, keep at my humble exercise routine – one that involves mainly push-ups, sit-ups, stretches, and some basic weight training.

It’s not, however, simply the body and moves of a dancer that fascinate me. It’s the whole idea that the human body can express meaning, ideas, emotions, truth - the really important things, in other words, of this dance we call life. I resonate with what François Rousseau has to say about dancers, after photographing many of them for his bookMen in Motion: The Art and Passion of the Male Dancer. “The mission of the dancer,” he says, “is not to exhibit his body as an object, but rather to use the body he has, in the space he has, to put forth the feeling and meaning within his dance.” The physical beauty of the dancer, he adds, is “actually a by-product of the artistic determination.”

In The Queer Encyclopedia of Music, Dance, and Musical Theater, Douglas Blair Turnbaugh contends that dance “is almost certainly the oldest art,” and that as a “bonding agent,” it has been a “factor in the creation of great civilizations as different as those of ancient Egypt and Greece and the Aztecs and the Incas.”

Annemarie Schimmel in the foreword to the bookRumi and the Whirling Dervishes, notes that “in many civilizations, dance was an offering to the deities who might enjoy the harmonious movements of men and women.” Yet there is more to dance, especially inSufism, often described as the esoteric aspect of Islam that seeks to convey direct knowledge of the sacred. In this realm, it is also an offering of one’s own self. And on musing on this point, Schimmel asks: “Does not the moth circumambulate the candle, dancing, as it were, to immolate itself in the end in the flame which is enchanting light and consuming fire, representative of Divine Beauty and Majesty?”

Schimmel goes on to describe the prominent role that dance has played in the Sufi tradition:

Dance was practiced by the Sufis from early days; in the late ninth century the first semahanes were founded – houses where the Sufis could relax somewhat from their intense spiritual work and harsh asceticism. Soon, many onlookers considered the whirling dance an essential part of Sufism – very much to the chagrin of the “sober” Sufis, let alone the orthodox lawyers. However, the only brotherhood in which the whirling was ever institutionalized as part of the ritual was the Mevleviyya, forMevlana Rumihimself sang his immortal verses while whirling, enthralled by passionate longing for his friendShams, the “Sun of Tabriz,” who opened to him the way to immediate experience of the Divine Beloved.

Love, however, means to die to one’s [ego] and to be revived in the Beloved, as much as the whiling dance can be interpreted as the dance of everything created around the central Sun of Divine Love, it also means to re-enact death and resurrection.

Not surprisingly, dance has a long history of entwinement with both spirituality and sexuality. The sexual act, after all, is also in its way a re-enactment of death and resurrection. In fact, Turnbaugh maintains that it is the fear of the sexual energy expressed in dance that has ensured its excising from the rituals of Christianity.

Other religious traditions, however, along with some aspects of Christianity, display a less narrow and less fearful understanding of that vital energy that, as theologians James and Evelyn Whitehead remind us, is the mysterious presence at the heart of all things, a presence that “courses through the world, enlivening and healing hearts.” We’re talking here of erotic presence and energy, known “through and beyond sexual arousal.” It's a presence that seeks and yearns to engage us personally so as to lead us “beyond narrow self-interest into fuller participation in life.” Thus this energy, this Eros, has, as Jean Houston notes, a “mission with the soul.” But what happens when we fail to recognize and/or respond to this sacred invitation to enter into a fuller participation in life? “Without Eros in some form,” Houston says, “creativity suffocates; [and] the soul does not grow.”

I sense and experience Eros in the beauty and power of dance. Through dance, this energy of radical love and transformation inspires me and calls me to enter into the dance. What do I mean by this? Well, I don’t mean it makes me want to do pirouettes down the street, but it can and does inspire me to grow and be more flexible and creative in my thinking, my loving, my being in the world. It inspires me to be the best I can be in all areas of my life: my physical life, my prayer life, my relational life.

In other words, I may not have, and may never have, the body of a dancer. But I can have the soul of one.

I also find it interesting that the “desire for the fullness of life” that Eros imparts is what Jesus talked about and yearns for us to embody. Is it any wonder that Lord of the Dance is one of my favorite hymns?

. . . I danced on the Sabbath when I cured the lame,
The holy people said it was a shame;
They whipped and they stripped and they hung me high;
And they left me there on a cross to die.

Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.
And I’ll lead you all wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he.

They cut me down and I leapt up high,
I am the life that’ll never, never die;
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.

And I smile to think that the word we use to describe what is possessed and expressed by a beautiful and sensuous dancer, is the same word we use to describe God’s life-giving presence deep within us and throughout the world: grace. And since we are created in the image of God, I guess we’re all called to be dancers of one kind or another: graceful dancers of compassion, justice, insight, and revelation; dancers that seek to communicate, connect, and transform both ourselves and the world.

I seek to be such a dancer. And recently I’ve also decided to allow myself to be more intentionally and regularly inspired on multiple levels by attending actual dance performances here in the Twin Cities. I start tomorrow evening by attending the biennial show “Solo” at theSouthern Theater in Minneapolis. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “Solo” is an excellent way to access the “pulse of the Twin Cities dance scene” as it showcases the six most recent recipients of McKnight Foundation dance fellowships, each performing a new solo work. The “six-pack” of dance will features performances by Mary Ann Bradley, Sam Feipal (above), Kats Fukasawa, Justin Leaf, Karen Sherman, and Roxanne Wallace.

I also plan on regularly writing and sharing articles on the art of dance in a series of Wild Reed posts entitled “The Dancer and the Dance” – of which this post is officially the first. And I’ll conclude tonight’s post with the music video for theKate Bushsong, “Running Up That Hill” – a video that is unique in the realm of pop music for its intentional emphasis on dance.

Says Kate about this emphasis:

The director [of the video was] David Garfath and the dancer was a guy called Michael Hervieu, whom we auditioned. We wanted to do a piece, a serious piece of dance. Over the last couple of years, all the videos I've seen, dance has become a very exploited thing and hasn’t really been treated seriously. It’s been used to sort of be accessories around the person who’s starring in the film. And we thought it would be nice to do almost a classical piece of dance, filmed as well as possible, because it’s very rarely filmed well now. In fact, the only well-filmed piece of dance I think I've ever seen wasTwyla Tharp’s “Catherine Wheel” and I think that's because she was so involved in it that it was so good. So that’s what we wanted to do, a nice serious piece of dance, simple, well-filmed and give dance a chance in a real way in this pop world.

The dance draws uponcontemporary dancewith a repeated gesture suggestive of drawing a bow and arrow (the gesture was made literal on the image for the single in which Bush poses with a real bow and arrow). At the climax of the song, Bush's partner unexpectedly withdraws from her. In a surreal sequence, both are swept away down a long hall in opposite directions by an endless stream of anonymous figures wearing masks that are pictures of Bush and Hervieu’s faces.

MTVhowever, chose not to show this video and instead used a live performance of the song recorded at a promotional appearance on the BBC TV show Wogan). This was possibly due to the fact that the original video contains no actual performance or lip-synching of the song, or more likely they simply felt the original video too highbrow or sexually charged for their audience.

Mmm . . . too sexually charged for MTV? I think the issue was that it's too erotically-charged. Remember, Eros is known through and beyond sexual arousal, and seeks to draw us into engagement with the sacred, with the depth dimension of human experience. I think that's what can challenge and frighten people, and can lead some to dismiss and/or ridicule artistic endeavors such as the following, as “highbrow.”

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Yay! Michael I am so thrilled you are starting to explore dance (and not "just" for the softcore porn like many a queen). A very learned piece here that only you could write and make the connections. How perfect that I made a blog entry on dance at the same time-kindrend minds at work. You must come to NYC and I'll show you the rainbow of dance in all its forms! Let me know how your journey expands you mind-heart-soul As a child I had to hide my ballet lessons and never pursued it - a loss I replay in my thoughts at every performance.

I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, "Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective." As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words "progressive," "gay," and "Catholic" seek to describe.

Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.

On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.

Readers write . . .

"I believe your blog to be of utmost importance for all people regardless of their orientation. . . . Thank you for your blog and the care and dedication that you give in bringing the TRUTH to everyone."– William

"Michael, if there is ever a moment in your day or in your life when you feel low and despondent and wonder whether what you are doing is anything worthwhile, think of this: thanks to your writing on the internet, a young man miles away is now willing to embrace life completely and use his talents and passions unashamedly to celebrate God and his creation. Any success I face in the future and any lives I touch would have been made possible thanks to you and your honesty and wisdom."– AB

"Since I discovered your blog I have felt so much more encouraged and inspired knowing that I'm not the only gay guy in the Catholic Church trying to balance my Faith and my sexuality. Continue being a beacon of hope and a guide to the future within our Church!"– Phillip

"Your posts about Catholic issues are always informative and well researched, and I especially appreciate your photography and the personal posts about your own experience. I'm very glad I found your blog and that I've had the chance to get to know you."– Crystal

"Thank you for taking the time to create this fantastic blog. It is so inspiring!"– George

"I cannot claim to be an expert on Catholic blogs, but from what I've seen, The Wild Reed ranks among the very best."– Kevin

"Reading your blog leaves me with the consolation of knowing that the words Catholic, gay and progressive are not mutually exclusive.."– Patrick

"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter

"I ran across your blog the other day looking for something else. I stopped to look at it and then bookmarked it because you have written some excellent articles that I want to read. I find your writing to be insightful and interesting and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Keep up the good work. We really, really need sane people with a voice these days."– Jane Gael